Eby tells anti-extortion chief to demonstrate urgency or step down

By Canadian Press on January 21, 2026.

British Columbia Premier David Eby says the head of a police anti-extortion task force needs to step aside if he cannot demonstrate a sense of urgency in the fight.

Eby’s remarks about RCMP Assistant Commissioner John Brewer come a day after Brewer repeatedly declined to characterize a wave of extortion-related shootings in the Lower Mainland as a crisis.

The premier says Brewer’s comments “cut at public confidence” and he needs to clarify himself.

Brewer had said Tuesday in an update on the work of the BC Extortion Task Force that it was “actively hunting” suspects in 32 files across the Lower Mainland.

But he would not describe the situation a crisis after being pressed to do so in a news conference.

Brenda Locke, the mayor of Surrey, B.C., is meanwhile urging Ottawa to “take immediate action and implement a full-scale national initiative” against extortion violence in Canada amid the shootings linked to attempted blackmail in her city.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 21, 2026.

Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press